SA premier has mixed reaction to budget

Premier Jay Weatherill has welcomed the federal budget commitment to South Australia's infrastructure but says the state will lose $300 million in expected GST revenue.

The loss of such a significant amount over the next five years would put pressure on the state budget to be handed down in June, the premier and treasurer told journalists on Wednesday.

"It makes a difficult budget harder," he said.

"It is, to say the least, challenging for us to have to deal with such a large revision of revenue in the next five years."

The GST write-down was due to the decline in retail sales.

"The fact that retail spending has remained as flat as it has is certainly something that has not been forecast," he said, referring to commonwealth data SA was using to prepare its budget.

SA opposition treasury spokesman Iain Evans said that politically the $300 million write-down was a gift to the premier, allowing him to use it as an excuse to cover up the government's "own financial mismanagement".